Mission

We advance understanding of the climate system through interdisciplinary investigation of past, present, and future climates, and use this knowledge for socially relevant purposes.

CCR accomplishes this mission by:

• Excelling in disciplinary and interdisciplinary research using observations and earth-system models
• Integrating knowledge of past, present, and future climates to create a more holistic understanding of the climate system
• Researching the physical, ecological, and societal impacts of climate change
• Collaborating with university, state, national, and international researchers to study topical climate-related problems
• Promoting public understanding of climate-related issues, including global change

To deepen our understanding of the earth system, we have explored topics such as the following:

• Studying the causes of climate variability and abrupt climate change on time scales ranging from years to decades and centuries to millions of years
• Investigating how climate might change in the future due to natural causes and human actions
• Providing locally downscaled climate projections to decision-makers in the public and private sectors
• Studying past climates, investigating the effects of solar and volcanic variability, orbital changes, and plate tectonic processes on the earth system
• Evaluating the accuracy of modeled simulations of past climates to gain conficence in our ability to estimate future climates
• Contributing to improved treatment of clouds, oceans, sea-ice, ice sheets, vegetation, and carbon cycling in climate models
• Linking terrestrial and marine ecosystem models with global climate models to study the dynamics of the coupled systems and possible past, present, and future changes in vegetation, bioproductivity, and biodiversity